Joseph Jenks, founder of the Saugus Iron Works

Son of John Jencks & Sarah Fulwater. Married 1) Joan Hearne 2) Elizabeth. DID NOT MARRY Mary Tervyn or Teckes: she married Joseph Jenks of London.

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Find A Grave Memorial# 51417841;

Joseph Jencks

• Birth:  Aug. 26, 1599 Hammersmith, Greater London, England
• Death:  Mar. 16, 1683 Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA
• Burial: Unknown
• Son of John Jencks and Sarah Fulwater Jencks.
• The origins of the Jencks family in England is treated in NEHGR, Volume 110.
• He married, first, on Nov 5,1627 at Horton, Co. Buckinghamshire, Joan Hearne.
• He married, second, about 1650, a woman named Elizabeth, whose origins are not currently known. She died at Lynn, MA in July 1679.
• Children (by first marriage):
  • possibly George Jencks,
  • Joseph Jencks Jr,
  • Elizabeth Jencks, and
  • possibly Richard Jencks.
• Children (by second marriage):
  • Sarah Jencks Chilson,
  • Samuel Jencks (whose second wife was Elizabeth Potter Floyd Jencks, and whose children, by his first wife, included Samuel Jenks Jr and Mary Jenks),
  • Deborah Jencks,
  • John Jencks (father of Capt John Jenks Jr), and
  • Daniel Jencks. 
• Family links: 
  • Spouse:  Joan Hearne Jencks (1607 - 1635) 
  • Children:
    • Joseph Jencks (1628 - 1717)*
    • Daniel Jenckes (1663 - 1736)*

comments

From Jenks History:

"Early historical writings of this unique man, Joseph Jenks, once identified him as the husband of Mary Tervyn of the Parish of All Hallows in London. However, another record search was done by Meridith B. Colket, Jr., F.A.S.G. under the terms of the will of Harlan W. Jenks to supplement William B. Browne's "Jenkes Family in America". "The Jenks Family of England ", which obviously entailed much research throughout England, showed that, in fact, the Joseph Jenks who married Mary Tervyn and the Joseph Jenks who came to America, were not the same person."

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Saugus Iron Works National Historic site
Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site is a National Historic Site about 10 miles (16 kilometers)
northeast of Downtown Boston in Saugus, Massachusetts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Jenckes

Three prominent, early New England men were named:

• Joseph Jenckes.
  • (Alt. spellings include Jenks, Jencks.)

Joseph Jenckes I

• (baptized 26 August 1599 at St. Ann Blackfriars, London,
• d. 16 March 1682/83, Lynn, Essex County, MA)
• Joseph Jenckes settled in Lynn, Massachusetts by 1643, arriving as a widower.
• On March 6, 1646, he was awarded the first patent in North America by the General Court of Massachusetts, for making scythes.
  • This basic scythe design remained in use for over 300 years.
• In 1654 he built the first fire engine in North America, commissioned by the city of Boston.
• The site of the Jenckes forge is at the Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site.

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• Marriage to: Joane Hearne Abt. 11/05/1627
• Alternate death place: Colnbrook, Buckinghamshire, England.

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Living in Lynn, Massachusetts by 1645.

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• Joseph Jenks Sr., age 41, iron founder, of Colebrook, Buckinghamshire, widower with two sons,
  • was persuaded in 1643 to emigrate from England to Lynn, Massachusetts, to operate an iron-smelting and foundry business.
  • In that year, Robert Bridges had taken bog iron ore found in Saugus, Massachusetts, to London and persuaded a group of wealthy English gentlemen and merchants to join him in forming the Company of Undertakers for the Iron Works.
    • The company advanced £1,000 to commence the work.
    • The Company of Undertakers chose Mr. Jenks to go out from England and operate the iron works.
  • Mr. Jenks left his two sons, Joseph Jr. and George Jenks, in England with instructions to join him in America later.
    • He successfully set up the foundry, and personally cast the first article, an iron pot holding about one quart. **** This pot survives in the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts.
    • The iron works apparently operated for about twenty-five years before it became unprofitable.
• In 1641, the Massachusetts Bay Colony granted an exclusive right for the manufacture of salt.
  • It appears that this was for the establishment of an imported industry in Massachusetts, and not for an invention.
  • But in 1646, Massachusetts granted its first exclusive right for use of an invention. The inventor was Joseph Jenks Sr.
• The General Court recognized that he had made speedier engines for water-mills and also mills for making scythes and other edged tools, and it allowed him fourteen years without disturbance from others who might set up similar inventions.
  • Mr. Jenks purchased the right to manufacture scythes at the iron works, and
  • in 1655 he was granted a second exclusive right for seven years to manufacture an improved grass scythe. *** Apparently, the common scythe of the day was short, thick, heavy and slow.
    • Mr. Jenks made a scythe blade which was thinner and longer and was thickened on the back side for support.
    • For over 300 years the scythe of commerce remained substantially unchanged in shape from that of Mr. Jenks.
• In 1652, Massachusetts was short of coinage for use in its internal commerce.
  • It decided to coin its own money, despite the fact that the English policy, at least unofficially, prohibited the colonies from coining their own money.
    • Joseph Jenks Sr. was chosen to make the dies for striking the coins.
    • He made dies for threepenny pieces, sixpenny pieces and shillings.
    • They were to be of sterling silver, and by weight were to have five-sixths of the silver weight of the corresponding English coins.
    • This lesser weight would tend to prevent their export from the colony for their silver value.
    • Each was stamped with "Massachusetts" and a pine tree on one side, and on the other side "New England, Anno 1652," together with the number of pence in Roman numerals.
    • There is a story that Sir Thomas Temple, representing the interests of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, showed samples of the coins to King Charles II. When the King asked what kind of tree was represented on the coins, Sir Thomas answered that it was a royal oak tree, the tree which saved the King's life. The King answered that the colonists were "a set of honest dogs," and proceeded with the business at hand.
• In 1654, Joseph Jenks Sr. built a fire-engine for the city of Boston to deliver water in case of fire.
  • There were few such engines in the world, and Paris did not get its first for another 50 years.
• Joseph Jenks Sr., died in his early eighties, leaving a large family of descendants.
• His son Joseph Jenks Jr came over from England in 1645, two years after his father, to operate iron forges and saw mills.
  • * He could not find sufficient water power to operate his mills available in Warwick, Rhode Island, so he moved in 1671 to the vicinity of Pawtucket Falls in Rhode Island to build a mill, and incidentally to found the town of Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
• Joseph Jenks III was a distinguished citizen of Rhode Island.
  • His two principal claims to fame must have been that he
    • was the royal governor of Rhode Island from 1727 to 1732, and that
    • he stood seven feet two inches in his stocking feet.

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• Joseph Jenks (August 26, 1599 to March 16, 1683)
  • Born in St. Anne, Blackfriars, London, England.
  • He married Joan (Jone) Hearne on November 5, 1627 in Horton, Buckingham, England.
  • Together they had three children.
    • Elizabeth died as a baby.
  • After Joan's death in 1634, he immigrated to America in 1642.
  • He left his two sons, Joseph Jr. and George William with relatives.
    • Joseph Jr. followed his father to America in 1645.
  • Joseph Sr. married a second time to Elizabeth Darling, somewhere around 1650.
• Joseph Sr. was a blacksmith and sword maker.
• In 1642 he was arrested and plagued because of his sturdy independence and outspoken opinions.
• He fled Lynn, Massachusetts to Rhode Island where he found a more tolerant form of faith than that of the Lynn Puritans.
• He received the first American patent, issued from England, in 1646 for his invention of a water driven mill.
  • The mill was used to produce scythes (another of his inventions) and other cutting tools.
  • He was quoted as saying about his inventions that they were "for speedy dispatch of much work with few hands".
  • He also made the first sawmill, fire engine and dies for the famous Pine Tree money, the earliest coinage minted in the colonies.
• He died in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, but his fame lives to the present day.

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• The name "Jencks" is of Welsh origin traced to the year 150 B.C. through many kings of Britian and warriors of ancestral times.
• Joseph Jencks, a descendant of Robert of the Manor Wolverton or Shropshire, England, had a son Joseph born in 1602 (or 1599), a master mechanic who came to America at the urging of Governor Winthrop as the country needed men of his type.

He settled in Lynn, Massachusetts, and is still called the greatest genius in the colonies. The history of Lynn states Joseph Jencks deserves to be held in perpetual remembrance as the first founder of brass and iron in the western continent. By his hand the first model was made and first cast taken of many domestic implements and tools. He was the first patentee of inventions in America, having introduced the idea of protection for manufacturers. His first Patent was for an engine "to go by water for speedy dispatch of much work with a few hands". His second patent and the second in America was a machine for cutting grass (lawn mower). He also made the first fire engine and is said to have cut the dies in 1652 for the first issue of the "Pine Tree" shilling. His forges were destroyed in King Phillip's war.

A few added notes on Mr. Jenkes (submitted by Joanne Lahr-Kreischert):

JOSEPH JENKES [see his page in the WhippleGenWeb], of Hounslow, Middlesex [now in Greater London], England; settled at Lynn, Mass., in 1643, where he died in 1683, aged 81 years.

"A man of great genius," he made the dies for coining the first money; also built the first fire engine in America.

His son, Joseph, was Governor's assistant of Rhode Island in 1681, and built a large iron foundry near Providence.

His grandson, Joseph, was Governor of Rhode Island, 1727-1732.

From an old newspaper comes the story of one Joseph Jencks of Wolverton, England who applied certain chemicals to the iron in its melted state to make steel. He allowed no one to inspect his furnaces, but one night two men succeeded in getting the watchman drunk and climbed into Jencks laboratory where they obtained a bottle of chemical which they took to New York for analysis. A short time later a new firm was started which drove the real inventor to the wall and received most of the credit for originating tempered steel.

Joseph Jencks was a widower when he came to America with two sons. His wife, Mary Terwyn, daughter of James and Marjory Terwyn was buried in the Parish of All Hallows, London in 1643. In New England he married again to Elizabeth about 1650. They had three sons and two Daughters. Joseph Jencks died in Lynn in 1683.

This immigrant ancestor forged blades for Benjamin Stone, the famous sword maker of Hounslow, Chapelry, in the parish of Isleworth, Middlesex, 6 miles from Hammersmith where his 2nd wife Elizabeth lived before their marriage. Horton, Bucks is 14 miles from Hammersmith. An officers sword in the Poswland Museum, Welshpool, Wales, is inscribed "Joseph Jenckes and M. Fecit" On Aug 7, 1639, he petitioned the Earl of Nothumberland for help in setting up a "new invented engine blade-mill upon ye river at Woorten Bridge" saying further "there is never an Englishman in ye Kingdome that cann use that profession but himself". The document is endorsed as granted but the operation was not continued long. (Colbert, Nehgr, 122:170-1 per Donald Hinman's History Manuscript)

His name was of the New Hampshire court records for Nov 10, 1642 & on a deed relating to land at York River Mar 16, 1642. He may have returned to England with John Winthrop Jr. who was seeking support for the establishment of an iron works at Saugers, near Lynn, Mass. The village at the foundry was named Hammersmith by workers from Hammersmith England. He was the first founder working in brass & iron in America and was also America's first machine patentee, for in 1646 the General Court of Mass Bay Colony granted him patents on a water wheel used to finish sharp iron instruments & on a machine for making scythes much like those in use today. He built a model saw mill and was evidently the builder of the first American fire engines.

From the New ENgland Journal of Genealogy:

Jenks, Daniel, Cumberland, youngest s. of first Joseph, built the first mills in that region, m. Catharine Balcom, or bolcom, had Abigail, b. 8 July 1696; Martha, 5 Aug. 1698; Susanna, 24 May 1700; Daniel, 12 Mar. 1702; Hannah, 15 Feb. 1704; Ruth 9 Dec. 1705; and Joseph, 5 Mar. 1709; and next m. Mary, d. of his br. Joseph, and had Mary. EBENEZER, Providence, third s. of sec. Joseph, ord. 1719, after good part of his days had pass. in civ. life, but in no pub. office, m. Mary Butterworth, ha fourteen ch. Sarah, b. 26 Dec. 1695; Ebenezer, 17 Sept. 1699; Daniel, 18 Oct. 1701; Phebe, 16 Jan. 1703; Rufus, 18 Dec. [p.543] 1704; Rachel, 1 Dec. 1706; Mary, 17 Oct. 1708; Joseph, 25 June 1711; Mercy, 26 Aug. 1712; one s. d. soon; Benjamin, 3 Nov. 1714; Freelove, and Noah, tw. 13 Sept. 1717; and Josiah, 2 Apr. 1720. He d. 14 Aug. 1726. JOHN, Lynn, s. of the first Joseph, m. 11 July 1681, Sarah, d. of William Meriam, had Eliz. b. Mar. 1683; Sarah, 12 July 1686; Deborah, 5 June 1690, d. young; Hannah, 20 an. 1694, d. young; and John, 6 Apr. 1697, wh. by three ws. had nineteen ch. of wh. twelve were m. and one was f. of Rev. William, H. C. 1797. He was freem. 1691, and d. 1698. His wid. m. John Lewis. JOSEPH, Lynn 1645, blacksmith, employ. at the iron works, came, a widower, is the tradit. of the fam. from Hammersmith, or Hounslow, Co. Middlesex, or Colnbrook, in the edge of Bucks, near London, had ch. Joseph, b. in Eng. and, perhaps, ano. s. that may have gone South, and be progenit. of the name in N. C.; and by sec. w. Eliz. wh. d. July 1679, had prob. Sarah; certain. Samuel, b. at Lynn 1654; Deborah, 11 June 1658; John, 27 July 1660; and Daniel, 19 Apr. 1663; and d. Mar. 1683. He was an ingenious workman; in 1652 was engag. to cut the dies for our coinage, says report; and Boston, in 1654, gave power (we find by the rec.) to its selectmen to contr. with him for engines to carry water, in case of fire. Sarah m. 28 July 1667, John Chilson.

JOSEPH JENKES [see his page in the WhippleGenWeb], of Hounslow, Middlesex [now in Greater London], England; settled at Lynn, Mass., in 1643, where he died in 1683, aged 81 years.

"A man of great genius," he made the dies for coining the first money; also built the first fire engine in America.

His son, Joseph, was Governor's assistant of Rhode Island in 1681, and built a large iron foundry near Providence.

His grandson, Joseph, was Governor of Rhode Island, 1727-1732.

notes

From New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 9, July 1855.  Page 202-203.  "The Jenks Family."

My dear Sir :—I shall, probably, be better able to comply with your desire, that I would prepare for you an account of the family of Jenks of Lynn, by employing the form of a letter, than in any other method; because it will afford me a starting-point, and render the language used more definite and intelligible.

The family, then, of my name, which settled in Lynn, yet of which none but descendants in female lines are now living there, had for its head the very ingenious machinist, as he would now be termed, whom you have so often mentioned in your History, Joseph Jenks—Jenkes, Jencks, or Jenckes—for the name is variously written. He is traditionally stated to have come from Hammersmith, or Hounslow, near London; and is supposed by Dr. Savage, with much reason, I think, to have been one of the workmen, whom John Winthrop the younger engaged and brought over with him in 1643, in order to commence the Iron-works, of which you have given so large an account. At those works you found he was in 1645; and in the next year he was an applicant to the General Court for patents, respecting scythes and mills, among the earliest taken out in the country. He is styled 'senior' in 1647, having been joined by a son of his own name, born in England, as is asserted, in 1632.

Joseph Jenks, senior, was a widower when he came over. Our tradition states, that he left Joseph junior with his maternal grandparents, whose family-name I know not, after assigning a sum sufficient for his maintenance until he should be of age, when he was directed to join his father in America. But he must have arrived, it appears, before that period, perhaps when 16, and is said to have had a brother, George, or William, who 'went from England to Virginia.' The name occurs in the interior of North Carolina.

By his second marriage, as the obliging communication of your own researches has shown, he had three sons and two daughters. These were, Sara, born near 1650; Samuel, in 1654; Deborah, 11: 4mo. 1658; John, my own ancestor, July 27th. 1660; and Daniel, 19th. 2d. mo. 1663. Elizabeth, his second wife, died in July, 1679; and in March, 1683, he died, but at what age I do not know; probably, however, between 70 and 80.*

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The second Joseph's son, Joseph, governor of Rhode Island, born in what is now Pawtucket in 1656; died 15 June, 1740, was a land-surveyor, and much employed by the Rhode Island colonial government in establishing its boundaries with adjoining colonies.

He was a member of the general assembly from 1679 till 1683, and clerk and speaker of that body. He was commissioner of the colony to settle the many boundary disputes that arose with Massachusetts and Connecticut" and later, between Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and Maine. He was also commissioned to reply to a letter of the king as to the "condition of affairs in Rhode Island," and to answer twenty-seven questions that were propounded by the lords of the privy council.

He was councillor most of the years from 1680 till 1712, state auditor in 1697-1704, and in 1717 chairman of a commission to compile and publish the laws of the colony, and to make a map of the colony for the English government.

He was again a member of the assembly from 1700 till 1708, deputy-governor from 1715 till 1727, except in 1721, when he was sent to England with plenipotentiary powers to settle boundary questions before the king" and governor in 1727-'32.

Being the first governor that lived outside of Newport, he was voted 1,100 by the assembly to defray the expense of removing his family to the seat of government. In 1731 he vetoed an act of the assembly to emit paper currency. After serving five years as governor, contrary to the usage of his predecessors, he declined a re-election.

Governor Jenckes was a giant in stature (measuring seven feet two inches in his stockings), and was well proportioned.

Still checking to see if this is a man linked to our Joseph Jenckes - even so, it is at least a collateral relation and the story tells much about the times.

the Governor Stephen Hopkins is also a collateral relation as is Whipple.

Here is the story and links:

Attack: Burning of the Gaspee

It was after midnight on the peaceful night of June 10, 1772. There was no useful moonlight and dark cloaked the Narragansett Bay, where the Gaspee, an English Navy schooner, had run aground on Namquid Point. Nine large longboats, with about 100 Rhode Island men, had rowed silently almost to the schooner before the sentinel saw them. As the English crew rushed on deck to fire muskets to prevent the ship being boarded, Joseph Bucklin could see the vessel's commander leaning over the starboard gunwale, swinging his sword and preventing the Rhode Island attacking force from boarding the Gaspee.

"Ephe," Bucklin said to his friend Ephraim Bowen, "reach me your gun, and I can kill that fellow."

Bucklin fired. The English captain fell, with wounds in his left arm and groin, from the one shot that pierced his forearm and then continued to the groin. The colonists swarmed aboard the schooner, overpowered the outnumbered crew, and took its crew prisoner. Joseph Mawney, a doctor among the raiders, together with Bucklin, tended to Dudingston's spurting femoral artery wound and saved his life.. The colonists rowed away with their prisoners, leaving one boat and the leaders of the expedition. The leaders, prominent men of Providence, set the Gaspee on fire before themselves leaving. As dawn broke, those on shore saw the Gaspee's powder magazine explode and the Gaspee sink, utterly destroyed. This was the beginning of a Revolution!

When the Rhode Island colonists supported the Gaspee raiders, and all the other American colonies joined in resisting the English attempt to punish those who attacked the English Navy's ship, the Gaspee Affair could be nothing other that the beginning of the end of Rhode Island's colonial status. At the urging of Thomas Jefferson of the Virginia legislature, committees of correspondence were formed by the legislatures of the other colonies, to coordinate an American response to the English attempt to punish the Gaspee Raiders. These committees were not only the beginning of a united end to English rule over colonial legislatures --- this was the start of a United States.

The Gaspee attack differed from the initial unplanned riots protesting English actions in three important points.

(1) The Gaspee attack was planned.

(2) The attack involved the shooting of an English military officer.

(3) The Gaspee attack involved many of the most prominent and wealthy families of the area (Providence, Rehoboth, and Pawtucket).

The capture of the English ship, and the subsequent events that unfolded in Rhode Island, in the adjoining colonies, and in England, is a fascinating part of American colonial history.

The colonists of the seventeen and eighteenth centuries in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and in the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations Colony were influential settlers of North America, who set much of the character of the United States of America. The colonial setting of those two colonies included radicals and reactionaries, aristocrats and republicans, pirates and sea captains, ship builders, craftsmen of all sorts, indentured servants and slaves, lawyers who had studied law in the Inns of Court of London, and farmers operating plantations with dozens of slaves. Most Americans had grown rich beyond the dreams of their parents, and land was still available for those willing to start new farms and forest industries. More ships were being built in America than in England, and the merchant class of Massachusetts and Rhode Island was important not only to American society and also to the English importers and exporters in England. The poor and lower class people in the American colonies were richer than those in Europe. This is the American colonial setting which we explore in these pages.

Read about the Gaspee Affair! This Gaspee web site is extensive (over 100 pages of information are available to you, and growing every three months!).

Following below are some good starting points to learn about the Gaspee Raid.

Our condensed four page history of the capture and burning of the Gaspee

Ephraim Bowen's eye-witness account.

The accounts of the three American participants who wrote personal recollections of the attack.

How the colonists used Law as a weapon against the English navy

The geography, tides, and moonlight of the attack.

A theory of what Brown was going to use to justify the attack.

Information about Capt. Joseph Bucklin 4th, sea captain, and prominent merchant

Who was the Joseph Bucklin who fired the important shot of the attack?

List, and descriptions, of participants in the Gaspee Attack

The picture of the Gaspee attack shown on this page is courtesy of the Museum of the U.S. Naval War College, where they acknowledge the Gaspee attack and the shot fired by Joseph Bucklin as part of U.S. Navy military history.

This is a history education and research web site of the of the Joseph Bucklin Society.

Books about American colonial and Revolutionary War history or the people involved.

We have special suggestions for persons who like American history.

Books from our JBS Bookstore. Browse the Bookstore.

                           For history and information of the raid itself, start with the Gaspee.Info site on the Internet                   

whip

Joseph Jenckes

JENCKES, Joseph, inventor, born in Colbrooke, England, in 1602; died in that part of Lynn, Massachusetts, that is now Saugus, 16 March, 1683. Iron-ore was early discovered about, Saugus river. The great need of the colonists for iron tools led Robert Bridges to take specimens of ore to London, by which he procured the formation of a company to develop its working.

Joseph Jenckes was induced to come from Hammersmith in 1642, as master-mechanic, to establish the "iron-works "--the first "foundry and forge" in the colonies. By his hands, or under his superintendence, the first furnaces were erected, the first moulds made, the first domestic utensils cast, and the first machinery and iron tools manufactured. The iron enterprise, under the protection of the Massachusetts bay government, appears to have been successful for several years, and furnished all kinds of excellent bar-iron to the colonies at a price not exceeding £20 a ton. Flowage and other lawsuits, with fear for a scarcity of fuel, eventually brought about a collapse.

Mr. Jenckes introduced to the colony the idea of patenting inventions, and it seems to have been a motive for coming to the new country that he might protect and introduce his own ideas. In 1646 he secured a patent for fourteen years on an improved water-wheel, also a newly invented sawmill. On 20 January, 1647, he purchased a privilege at the iron-works to build a forge where he might manufacture scythes and other edged tools. In 1652 a mint was established in Boston for coining silver. The pieces had "Masatusets," with a pine-tree, on one side; the reverse, "New England, Anno 1652," and the number of pence in Roman numerals. (See illustration.) The dies for this coin, the first issued in this country, were cut by Jenckes at the Lynn iron-works. In 1654 he built a fire-engine on the order of the selectmen of Boston, the first in this country.

In 1655 a patent was granted him for an improved grass-scythe. It had been withheld nine years, because it was deemed too valuable to be monopolized. This instrument has been and is used among all nations without essential improvement. The commissioner of patents, in 1846, pronounced the improvement to have been of greater relative mechanical advancement upon previous instruments than is the mowing-machine of today.

In 1667 government aid was sought to enable him to establish machinery for wire-drawing, and he also proposed the coinage of money. He was the originator of many improvements in tools and machinery, and received patents for his most useful inventions. Mr. Jenckes was the progenitor of all that bore his name in his country up to 1800. Most of his descendants have modified the spelling.

--His son, Joseph, manufacturer, born in Buckinghamshire, England, in 1632; died in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1716. About 1647 he followed his father to Lynn, Massachusetts, and acquired his trade and business. The rapid destruction of the forests about Lynn, to make charcoal for smelting and refining iron, caused alarm, and to establish himself in the iron business, he followed Roger Williams to Rhode Island. About 1655 he purchased from the Indians a tract of woodland in and about the territory of Providence, on Black-stone river, including Pawtucket falls. Iron ore was discovered near the falls, where he built a foundry and forge, which were destroyed during King Philip's war in 1675, but were rebuilt. Mr. Jenckes became the founder of what is now Pawtucket. It is enterprise laid the foundation by which Providence became the great iron work-shop of the colonies at the beginning of the Revolution. In 1661 he was a member of the governor's council, and he served for several years as a member of the house of deputies.

--The second Joseph's son, Joseph, governor of Rhode Island, born in what is now Pawtucket in 1656; died 15 June, 1740, was a land-surveyor, and much employed by the Rhode Island colonial government in establishing its boundaries with adjoining colonies. He was a member of the general assembly from 1679 till 1683, and clerk and speaker of that body. He was commissioner of the colony to settle the many boundary disputes that arose with Massachusetts and Connecticut" and later, between Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and Maine.

He was also commissioned to reply to a letter of the king as to the "condition of affairs in Rhode Island," and to answer twenty-seven questions that were propounded by the lords of the privy council. He was councillor most of the years from 1680 till 1712, state auditor in 1697-1704, and in 1717 chairman of a commission to compile and publish the laws of the colony, and to make a map of the colony for the English government. He was again a member of the assembly from 1700 till 1708, deputy-governor from 1715 till 1727, except in 1721, when he was sent to England with plenipotentiary powers to settle boundary questions before the king" and governor in 1727-'32. Being the first governor that lived outside of Newport, he was voted 1,100 by the assembly to defray the expense of removing his family to the seat of government. In 1731 he vetoed an act of the assembly to emit paper currency.

After serving five years as governor, contrary to the usage of his predecessors, he declined a re-election. Governor Jenckes was a giant in stature (measuring seven feet two inches in his stockings), and was well proportioned.

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Joseph Jenks1
b. 26 August 1599, d. 16 March 1683

Father John Jenks2 Mother Sarah Fulwater2 b. 19 March 1573

Pedigree

Last Edited 19 Jun 2004

Baptism 26 August 1599 Joseph Jenks was baptized on 26 August 1599 at St. Anne , Blackfriars, London, England.2

	He was the son of John Jenks and Sarah Fulwater.2 

Marriage (first) 5 November 1627 Joseph Jenks married Ellen or Joan Hearne on 5 November 1627 at Horton Parish, Buckinghamshire, England.3

Marriage (second) circa 1650 Joseph Jenks married Elizabeth ? circa 1650.1

Death 16 March 1683 Joseph Jenks died on 16 March 1683 at Lynn, MA, at age 83.1

Fact 1 Joseph Jenks obtained the first machine patent granted in America, for a labor-saving device involving the finishing of sharp iron instruments by the use of water wheels..4

Immigration between 1638 and 1642 He immigrated between 1638 and 1642 to New Hampshire. He remained there only a short time and was in Lynn by 1645.5

Family 1 Ellen or Joan Hearne

Marriage 5 November 1627 He married Ellen or Joan Hearne on 5 November 1627 at Horton Parish, Buckinghamshire, England.3

Child 1. Joseph Jenks b. 12 Oct 1628, d. 4 Jan 17176

Family 2 Elizabeth ? d. 1679

Marriage circa 1650 Joseph Jenks married Elizabeth ? circa 1650.1

Children

1. Sarah Jenks b. 16521

	 2.	Samuel Jenks b. 1654, d. 12 Mar 17387

	 3.	Deborah Jenks b. 11 Jun 16581

	 4.	John Jenks b. 27 Jul 1660, d. 16988

	 5.	Daniel Jenks+ b. 19 Apr 1663, d. 17361

Citations [S979] William B. Browne, Genealogy of the Jenks Family of America, page 1. [S981] Jr Meredith B. Colket, "The Jenks Family of England", page 14. [S981] Jr Meredith B. Colket, "The Jenks Family of England", oage 14. [S981] Jr Meredith B. Colket, "The Jenks Family of England", page 18. [S981] Jr Meredith B. Colket, "The Jenks Family of England", page 17. [S981] Jr Meredith B. Colket, "The Jenks Family of England", page 13. [S979] William B. Browne, Genealogy of the Jenks Family of America, page 1,9. [S979] William B. Browne, Genealogy of the Jenks Family of America, page 9. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~krworley/p143.htm#i7115

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(baptized 26 August 1599 at St. Ann Blackfriars, London, d. 16 March 1682/83, Lynn, Essex County, MA) Joseph Jenckes settled in Lynn, Massachusetts by 1643, arriving as a widower. On March 6, 1646, he was awarded the first patent in North America by the General Court of Massachusetts, for making scythes. This basic scythe design remained in use for over 300 years. In 1654 he built the first fire engine in North America, commissioned by the city of Boston. The site of the Jenckes forge is at the Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site.

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• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Jan 5 2018, 14:42:15 UTC